Music

Rhiannon Giddens sings the kind of music that people in the United States need to hear. With a haunted plucking on her banjo, Giddens conjures the past and present lives of black people in America.

Bleachers stop at the Ogden Theatre on Friday, October 6, in support of the band’s latest effort, Gone Now. Tickets ($25.99-$30) go on sale on Friday, August 18, at 10 a.m. Evanescence brings its Synthesis Live tour to the Paramount Theatre on Wednesday, December 13. Tickets ($52.50-$102.50) go on sale on Friday, August 18, at 10 a.m. Kid Cudi headlines the Fillmore Auditorium on Friday, November 10, as part of his Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ tour. Tickets ($49.50-$55) go on sale on Friday, August 18 at 10 a.m.

Local piano-based Americana trio Alright Alright is a mass of contradictions. On one hand, singer/pianist China Kent and guitarist Seth Kent are married parents, as close as people can be. They met when Seth helped China carry her piano into a gig, and that gallantry eventually earned him a wife. When they talk, their words bounce off of each other, but they never interrupt each other. They’re a perfect match.

There was a woman sitting on her four-wheeled walker near the soundboard for most of Herbie Hancock’s two-hour set Monday night at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Troy Andrews, also known as Trombone Shorty, was born into a musical family and has lived a musical life. He started playing trombone at four years old, knows his way around funk and jazz, and has been working as a professional musician since he was a teenager. While he has been immersed in music for most of the 31 years he’s been alive, he spent the day before he and his band left for Japan to play the Fuji Rock Festival driving around New Orleans, his home town, with his car stereo off.

Sunday’s Colorado Music Hall of Fame Presented by Comfort Dental induction and concert event was a poignant, well-produced evening honoring Colorado music creators and cultivators. This year’s class included famed — but long gone — studio, Caribou Ranch, the late Dan Fogelberg and Joe Walsh & Barnstorm. Legendary producer Bill Szymczyk was also honored with a Colorado Music Hall of Fame Award of Excellence. Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald, veterinarian, television personality and frequent face at Comedy Works, emceed. The night would have been Fogelberg’s sixty-sixth birthday.

Johnny Iguana, founder of the Chicago-based soul-punk-blues band the Claudettes, plays the piano so hard that he breaks keys. His piano gets repaired all the time because of how hard he abuses it. He says it’s not a showmanship thing; he just gets overexcited.

After a lengthy trial, a jury of eight determined former Denver DJ David “Jackson” Mueller had assaulted and battered singer Taylor Swift.

“You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, it’s true…” A seemingly simplistic lyric launched British singer-songwriter James Blunt into the public eye in 2005; the radio played the song endlessly after its release.

Rapper Logic headlines Red Rocks tonight with Joey Bada$$ and Big Lenbo opening while Trombone Shorty is at the venue on Wednesday. Also this week, Ed Sheeran is a the Pepsi Center, St Paul & the Broken Bones has a two-night stand at Chautauqua Auditorium and Denver Botanic Gardens features two jazz legends, Herbie Hancock tonight and Chick Corea tomorrow night.

Sylvan Esso’s Colorado fans revere the North Carolina indie duo’s EP Echo Mountain Sessions, even if it’s a surprising rock-and-roll departure from the act’s synth-pop sound.

It’s hard to imagine a time when the musicians in Strange Americans didn’t feel like they were a part of the Denver music scene. “I think we were so new that we hadn’t been in the scene for awhile,” Guitarist/vocalist Matt Hoffman says. “Now we know a lot of people , but at the time we were disconnected.”

Back in June, Denver-based composer/percussionist Thomas Blomster excitedly told Westword about his upcoming trip to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where a piece of his would be performed by the Morin Khuur Ensemble, a traditional Mongolian folk orchestra that is part of the Mongolian Philharmonic.

Velorama Colorado, a celebration of bands and bicycles, is happening in the RiNo District this weekend and spotlights live music by Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, Old 97’s, the Jayhawks and more, while Rancid and Dropkick Murphys co-headline the Sculpture Park tonight with the Selecter and Kevin Seconds opening.

Taylor Swift took the stand this morning to testify during the fourth day of the Mueller v. Swift et. al lawsuit over an alleged groping incident at a June 2, 2013 meet-and-greet at the Pepsi Center. The pop star was firm and funny, as she accused former KYGO morning show DJ David Mueller of groping her bare butt, an assertion that led to his termination. The word “ass” was uttered over forty times within the hour Swift testified.

Loyal fans know that when Green Day comes to town, Billie Joe Armstrong will invite some eleven-year-old kid up to play his guitar every goddamn time. He’s been doing it since the punk outfit started packing arenas in 1994. And we’ve not grown tired of it, anymore than we’ve grown tired of the classic power-chord driven songs.

The new Velorama Festival is like a craft cocktail, pairing seemingly-disparate but intriguing components. In this case, those ingredients are a music festival, a professional-level bike race, and a flea market. The race c
omponent began today in Colorado Springs, but the festival itself will descend on RiNo Friday the 11. Here are six tips on how to navigate (and what to head to at) this weekend at Velorama: